Chapter 11
Jodi Castle
It took all of three minutes to walk between the Black Halo and Ghost Boys buses.
Curiously, there was no security posted outside today.
The why of that became apparent the moment Jodi mounted the bus steps and got a whiff of the interior – sex and weed.
Seemed she hadn’t been the only soul who’d succumbed to escapism last night.
While her absence may have been noted, it sure didn’t seem like anyone was overly worried.
Lee and Jez were sprawled across the banquettes that curved around the front section of the bus, three girls a piece draped over them in varying stages of undress.
The detritus of a booze and sex filled night littered the area, necessitating her stepping over an assortment of empty cans, discarded prophylactics and roaches en route to the rear.
“Jodi, you’re alive,” Lee reached a hand towards her. His fingertips brushed her hip as she sidled past trying not to touch anything. “Nash was looking for you. Where’d you get to?”
Where’d he get to?
“Where is he, Lee?” Not out scouring the campsite, she’d warrant. He’d probably only noticed that she wasn’t here because the rest of them had companions to cuddle and she’d not been on hand to pull onto his lap.
Sure enough, Lee tipped his head in the direction of the back of the bus.
It had to be said, that while this bus was newer and slicker in some regards, it felt sterile after what she’d seen of Black Halo’s home on wheels.
It wasn’t down to the layout difference either.
That bus had felt like a home, whereas this was basically a corporate sex shack on wheels, and it still smelled of the showroom beneath the spilled beer and body odour.
“Anything I should know before I go in there?” she asked, hand on the bunk room door handle.
The question seemed to momentarily confound Lee.
“He’s not a cheat.” Jez removed his nose from some girl’s cleavage to spit out that observation. A sight she’d like to remove from her eyes with bleach. Besides tits, what did that woman have that he couldn’t have got in a far more meaningful way from Rune?
“So, I’m not going to walk into a roomful of naked bodies?”
Lee hmn-ed, and Jez hah-ed.
“Can’t say for sure,” the latter eventually admitted. “Balin’s back there, too, and you know what Mr Karunarathne’s like about shedding his attire.”
Actually, she didn’t. She’d never seen Balin anything other than fully clothed. Well, okay, minus a shirt a time or two.
“Doing?”
“What do you think?”
Using his newfound fame as an ego booster. Okay, she’d just brace herself for the possibility that humping was happening. Although that begged the question, what was her fiancé doing back there?
Nash wasn’t shagging.
That wasn’t much of a relief, given that he was watching Balin fuck some lass and had obviously been doing so for some time.
He was still in the same clothes he’d had on last night, and his hair was limp with sweat.
“Babe, you’re here,” he said, pulling her onto his lap and shoving his hands up her top to fondle her tits.
“I’ve missed you. Where’ve you been?” His lips were already heading towards her ear when she jerked back out of his lap, where he’d clearly been hoping to fasten her.
“I think the more important question is where were you?”
Not the note she’d wanted to get off on, but her insides were aflutter, guilt eating her, and he was watching his band mate fuck a stranger.
“Me? I’ve been right here, keeping an eye on this dirty pair.” He grinned at that, which further provoked her. She was sorely tempted to call him a wanker, except, which of them was truly in the wrong here?
“It must have been a stellar performance, since it slipped your mind that you were supposed to be elsewhere.”
“Huh?”
He continued to glance around her to the pair on the bottom bunk. Her arrival hadn’t impacted the performance, Balin’s naked arse clenching with each thrust into the girl whose legs he had braced against his chest.
“Nash!”
His attention snapped to her face, eyes wide.
“You were supposed to meet me.”
It took a moment. Then, “Oh, shit! Oh, God. Sorry. I’m sorry. Did we agree to that?”
Did they... He’d sodding made the arrangement. Suggested it to her, not the other way around. “Quarter to eleven. Up at the standing stones. Remember arranging that?”
He gave her a blank look.
“We were supposed to get handfasted, Nash, and you fucking stood me up.”
“Hey. Hey,” he reeled her in. “Where’s all this hate coming from? It’s been crazy, okay. I forgot. Maybe.” He shook his head. “Are you sure we fixed a time? I know we were discussing it, but we hadn’t even been through our vows.”
“You arranged it.”
“Right. Well, no biggy. We can do it tonight.”
“You’re performing tonight.”
“Tomorrow, then, before we leave.”
“No, Nash. That’s not what it’s about. You’re not just supposed to rock up when you feel like it. It’s supposed to symbolise commitment.”
“Right, and aren’t I committed to you?”
“You stood me up.”
“I don’t think I did. Look, I gave you that ring, yeah?
” He straightened out her fingers, so the ring was prominent on her hand.
“Along with my promises, and my heart.” She was practically on his lap again, only straddling him now.
It was an odd time to notice it, but his fly was undone. More than that…
“You’re fucking hard.”
“Well, yeah. Of course I’m hard. You’re here. You do it for me, baby, you know that.”
“Bullshit, you’re hard because you were watching a live fucking porno.”
“Tone it down, folks, I’m trying to shag here,” Balin said from the bed, in a breathless voice.
“Yeah, Jo-Jo, what’s with? You’ve never had an issue with me indulging in a bit of voyeurism before. It gets me hot, so what? I’m not sticking it anywhere, apart from in you.”
“Gee, you’re so romantic. I feel so wanted. You left me on a hillside in the dark, but it’s okay because you did it so you could watch porn to get it up for me.”
He shook his head. “Not what I said. You know I think you’re sexy. You’re my sexy snuggle pug.”
She knew he intended it to be cute, but objectively pugs were pretty ugly. Sometimes, ugly enough to be cute, but still...
“Babe, what’s up? Why are you so upset by this? I said I’m sorry. And we can sort something out about the handfasting, promise. I’ll figure it all out. You won’t have to worry about it. Let me take the weight. You know you like it when I do that for you.”
“I can’t, Nash. It doesn’t matter what you organise or how it fits in your schedule anymore, or even if you remember. I already… Shit!” She bellowed the expletive so loud the girl on the bed wriggled out of Balin’s grasp, and taking the bedclothes with her, exited the room.
“Fuck,” Balin swore, attempting to chase after her with a still raging hard-on.
“Babe,” Nash finally rose from his perch. He tried to reach for her, but she was too upset to be coddled in the usual way.
“You didn’t come, Nash. Do you know how much that hurt? I kept telling myself that you’d show, eventually. Told myself punctuality has never been your thing, but—but then…”
Then she was right back in the moment. Rock Giant stepping in like he was who she’d been waiting for all along.
Taking her hand, making her all those promises, and looking her right in the eyes as he did it.
It’d been kind of perfect. The heavens, the woodland scent, him smiling down at her.
The flower crown. His hand enveloping hers.
His grip so solid, so utterly reassuring.
Her throat closed up as the memories bit her hard.
In the binding of our hands, I give you my strength when you need it.
I will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch, will comfort you like no other.
I will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind.
I’ll wipe the tears from your eyes, tears of sorrow, and tears of joy.
I give you my heart, forever and always…
Oh, God! Oh, God!
Her heart didn’t know what to do with itself. Had he really promised her all that stuff?
She pressed her fist to her mouth, to hold in the sob that threatened to break free.
“But then, what?” Nash demanded, not even looking at her as he asked, but focused instead on zipping his fly.
“Someone else stepped in.”
“Say what?”
Now his attention was on her.
“It was our turn, and everyone else was done, and he—he stepped in, and they did the thing and…”
“So, like, you did a practice run with some tool?”
It prickled. It prickled bad to hear him describe Rock Giant in that way.
“No, I got handfasted to him. There’s no practice run. You exchange oaths, and they tie the knots.”
It took a moment for it to sink in.
“You fucking what?” Nash’s eyes bulged and heat licked across his cheeks and temples. “We’re engaged, Jodi!”
“I’m aware.”
“We’re fucking engaged. What do you mean you said, I do with some bugger else?”
“It’s not legally binding, Nash. A handfasting is a traditional ceremony, symbolic, but—”
“You exchanged vows with someone else! Who the fuck is this bastard?”
“—he’s insistent that we respect it. He’s not going to let it go.”
Maybe this wasn’t the best time to mention that, but then again, wasn’t it best to just get it all out there at once?
“I’m going to fucking kill him.”
In a show of support, and because they’d evidently been eavesdropping, the rest of the band barrelled into the room, jeans, and shirts in hand, as they tried to dress while moving. “We’re here. Whatever you’re thinking, we’re—”
“You’re not going to do anything,” she said, finding some measure of strength. The last thing she wanted was for this to escalate into something more than it needed to be. “You’re going to let this lie and let me sort it out. It’s my problem. My mistake to correct.”
“The fuck I am,” Nash spat. “You’re shit at sorting your problems out. Give me his name right now, so that I can make sure he doesn’t set foot near you or this bus. And forget shacking up in that tent of yours. You’re staying here from now on.”
Happened that she liked her tent. It was hers. Her sanctuary. Her home. Shit, the cats… They obviously hadn’t been fed this morning… Nash had been here, watching Balin dipping his wick. They’d be distraught.
Nash’s hands circled her upper arms, and for a moment it seemed like he intended to shake her. Instead, he growled, “Who the fuck is he?” right into her face.
It made him ugly. Uglier for the memories it invoked of both her father and her youngest brother, Cam, yelling at her from a similar distance of approximately two inches, making sure she knew exactly how worthless, how big a nobody she was.
Emphasis on big. She was so caught in that recollection, that when he demanded a name for a second time, she blurted it right out.
“Paul. His name’s Paul, but you’re not going to do anything. Nash, don’t.”
“Sounds like a tool,” Balin observed.
“You might not want to say that to his face,” she retorted, getting defensive on her…
whatever he was’s behalf, and because old habits died hard.
She’d never learned to shut up. She always screamed back…
fought back. It was an automatic response.
One she thought she’d conquered. Truth was, she’d just not been in a situation that had tested it. At least not since Valencia.
“Oh, and why’s that?” Balin asked. He was still naked; save for the socks he paused in the act of putting on to await her answer.
There were various grumbles and groans. “Who is he?” Nash demanded, still too close, looking murderous, and blasting her with stale beer breath.
“Paul Reed. His name’s Paul Reed. You might have heard of him.”
It took maybe a millisecond for the penny to drop.
“Rock Giant.” Nash blurted. “You have got to be fucking kidding me. You hooked up with Rock Giant? And you have the temerity to lash out at me for watching Balin.”
She hadn’t hooked up with him. They’d got handfasted.
Big difference. But looking at her four closest friends and the disgust on their faces, all the heat drained out of her, along with her fight.
She hadn’t meant to fuck things up, and now she’d made it worse.
She’d meant to explain it all calmly, play it down, rather than launch it like a grenade.
“Tell me this is a fucking joke.”
If only she could. “You think I’d make something like this up?”
The F-bomb explosion Nash let off was probably loud enough to have been heard on the Black Halo bus.
He peeled away from her and sat with a thump on the unmade bunk.
When she followed, and knelt before him, he slapped her hands away.
“Fuck off,” he said. “Just fuck off, Jodi. I don’t even want to look at you right now.
I can’t believe you’ve done this. Why would you be such a thoughtless cunt? ”